


…High Above these Crowns

by MiyuTanemura



Series: Under and Above [2]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drabble, Gen, Gray's POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-04 12:54:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12771510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiyuTanemura/pseuds/MiyuTanemura
Summary: One event, two sides. Side Gray.





	…High Above these Crowns

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from a Cellar Darling song.  
> Another side to the previous fic. I advise reading the first part before this one.

The darkness began to turn grey which in turn turned to golden.

The sun had risen and made its trek up in the distant sky.

Not like it mattered. Gray noted. Day and night were the same, the only difference being the amount of light that would reach him – that would conquer the thickness of foliage so high above.

But, in the end, he was still lost to it. Plunged into the most profound darkness, the one that had enveloped him those years ago.

Unless…

There was still one day that shone differently. Where there was, in fact, light reaching him.

Gray had been taken by the darkness, all those years ago. He’d grown, twisted by it. Only being given solace once a year – if such things were able to be accounted when plunged in a timeless bubble – to remember what _being_ once meant. How he was supposed to be, had he not been taken as token for unknown magic.

That day was when Natsu went _there_.

The place where it all had happened.

The gelid sacrifice, the anguish, the fear and sorrow.

But now, _here_ Natsu was.

And so _was_ Gray.

He raised his hand, dark grey against the slightly clear wall – or lens, it was something unbreakable – his lips tilting slightly up.

 _He hasn’t forgotten_. Something inside of him lifted, a relief in the oppression compressing his thorax. _No, he hasn’t!_ The fact that Natsu was calling Gray’s name, having an one-sided conversation with the large oak that trapped him there, showed him how despite everything, he still had Natsu.

No you don’t! An unneeded thought slipped through and made the shackles grip him tighter. _He can keep going, which you will never be able to do!_

Yes, the imprisonment had shown him that. He’d been caught, been in the wrong place at the wrong time – it was the time he most regretted their harebrained challenges, because it had ended in _this!_ – and everything was over.

He could no longer laugh or be with Natsu, having one of their dumb fights, slowly easing the guilt of his past, feel the wind ruffling his hair or the sun heating his skin – and even less feel the snow, enjoy the snowball battles. Now he simply was…

How void of an existence…

Which, he’d debated countless times already, actually was no longer an existence. He was connected to the oak tree’s existence, he noticed all the life surrounding him yet, he couldn’t find his own.

So he looked up, took in Natsu, how different he was, older, more mature but still with that dumb face that he could punch and have a laugh after.

He wished he could listen to Natsu. Enjoy his words as they were taken away by the wind, rising and floating above the treetops, joining the golden light of the sun, which enriched the world the same way Natsu enriched Gray’s world.

But…

Gray realized something, with regret.

This was untenable. It couldn’t go for much longer.

Fingers that under the rough light seemed gnarled like some of the knots in the tree touched briefly the strange surface. It rippled slightly, a small shock running up Gray’s arm. He longed to touch Natsu, a friendly punch to the arm, grabbing a wrist so that he didn’t fell down the ravine, just… touching his best friend would be beyond his happiest dreams.

But it couldn’t be, he had to let go.

The faint connection to the world he had once belonged to, it had to be severed.

Gray gulped.

It would probably cut the last tie he had to that silly boy… his best friend…

Maybe it was for the best.

Gray swiped roughly at the surface and, like a taut string being plucked, something resonated in the whole world. And then... 

_-snap-_

It was over.

Gray had let go.


End file.
